Midnight Talk # 3

Sister Amina Tirmizi was kind enough to send me these notes she took of Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar’s itikaf talks. Masha’Allah they’re excellent notes, I will put up the rest soon.

Listen Here: “Midnight Talk #3” by Shaykh Husain Abdul Sattar

The way to attract the love of your Lord is through the Sunnah (the way of the Prophet). The believers recognize that they and their Lord are incomparable. Allah is majestic, humans are weak. Allah is rich, humans are poor. The interface in which human beings can connect with their Lord (need interfaces to connect to incompatible things, ie. need an adapter to plug in to use something abroad) is the interface of Rasoolallah صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم. The sunnah creates the opportunity for love of Allah, “qul in kuntum tuhibullah, fatabiuni, yuhbibukumullah.” We are physically and spiritually impure. How can we attract the attention of Allah despite our deficiencies? Allah loved the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم  and if we begin to mimic him, then that sunnah attracts the attention of Allah and makes us capable of being loved by him. The sunnah is the mechanism to attain the love of Allahسبحانه و تعالى .

Imagine you are someone who wants to beautify yourself,you look through your jewelry box and you put on diamonds, pearls, and rubies, because you know they will attract attention. In the same way, each sunnah is like a diamond or a pearl. Each one is its own magnet and attracts Allah in its own way.

Nabi  صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم left a very small footprint in this world, he used to wear worn-out clothing with patches on it, days would go by where he wouldn’t eat, fire did not burn in his house for months etc. This was our Nabi’s interaction with the world. Remember:

• Allah سبحانه و تعالى‎ owns the planet and the entire universe and if we use anything we should recognize that we are taking from his dominion. This means we should use according to necessity and not waste anything. We are travelers on a journey.
• The companions of Nabi صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم used to think, “This is a place to give, and that is a place to take” (the world is a place where you take little and give a -lot, the hereafter is the place where you truly take). Hadrat Umar رضي الله عنه was given a cold cup of water and he wept thinking that maybe something in his next life would diminish if he took it. It’s like checking in to a hotel, you check in in 1973 and check out at 2020.
• The goal is to take less here so we can take more there. We should take the wealth we have and feed others, use our time and strength to serve others, make sure everyone’s needs are filled before our desires are fed. We should plant seeds here, and reap our harvest in the hereafter.
• Seek every opportunity to be in the service of Allah’s creation. Alleviating a difficulty of someone freezes us from the hellfire. Don’t you think we will be compared with the person who died of starvation? How can we fill our stomachs when other people are hungry? The way of the Prophet صلی اللہ علیہ وسلم is to take what you need (what is minimal) and make sure everyone else receives what they need.

May Allah make us amongst those who embed the sunnah in our lives, may He grant us abundance in our health and wealth so we can serve others with it.